Page:History of the Ninth Virginia Cavalry in the War Between the States.djvu/54

48 in perfect repose. As the morning grew that stillness was broken by the dread sounds of war, and the artillery was sending its shrieking balls quickly and loudly. The enemy was driving us, and the brigade, fighting and contesting every position, was compelled to retreat before a large force, composed of infantry and cavalry. Private Luttrell, of Company K, had his arm shattered by a shell near Union. The enemy seemed to be pressing both flanks, as well as our front. General Stuart ordered that the Ninth Regiment should move to the left and occupy the Bloomfield road. We joined Captain Haynes on this road some miles from Bloomfield, from which he had been driven, after suffering the loss of some ten men, chiefly by capture. One or two of these escaped and rejoined us. A column was now pressing forward on this road, and also one upon the Trappe road, running parallel with and near the mountains. The two roads united near the town of Upperville.

Our instructions were to hold this force in check while the General fell slowly back upon the direct road connecting Union and Upperville. We reached by nightfall a position beyond the junction of the roads, and in sight of Upperville, and bivouacked, with three squadrons, in a graveyard, while the other two picketed the roads in front of the enemy's two advancing columns. The night was passed in quiet. The squadrons on picket fell back at dawn to the position held by the others. The enemy appeared close in their rear; halted on coming in sight of us, and threw out a skirmish-line of dismounted men, which, extending across our front, sought to reach a wooded ridge on our right and a stone fence on our left. Our Mountsville captures now proved of essential service. The long-range rifles in the hands of our dismounted men defeated every effort to reach our flanks, and finally drove the skirmishers back to the cover of the hill. Before noon we discovered that a road a mile to our right upon which the Fourth regiment was placed had been carried by the enemy, and we could see their squadrons in the fields moving down on our right flank.